The Enchanted Violin
by Adrift an Open Sky
Summary: Nearing midnight, Sakura leaves their inn and heads out to her father's grave. Sasuke, wary of her late night detour, follows suite. Hiding behind the churchyard's gate, he watches a haunting scene unfold. A retelling of chapter five from The Phantom of the Opera. Sasusaku and Kakasaku, One-shot.


**If anyone's curious about the violin piece that is played: the book calls it "The Resurrection of Lazarus", but no such piece has been found. I imagine it to sound like Tartini's "Devil's Trill Sonata", so look that up and listen to it if you want to try and imagine the enchanting music :P**

* * *

"No one ever sees the Angel, but he is heard by those who are meant to hear him. He often comes when they least expect him, when they feel sad and discouraged. Then their ears suddenly perceive celestial harmonies, a divine voice, which they remember all their lives long. Persons who are visited by the Angel quiver with a thrill unknown to the rest of mankind. And they cannot touch an instrument or open their mouths to sing, without producing sounds that put all other human sounds to shame. Then people who do not know that the Angel has visited these persons say that they have 'genius'."

Little Sakura asked her father if he had heard the Angel of Music. He shook his head sadly, but then his eyes lit up, as he said: 'You will hear him one day, my child! When I am in Heaven, I will send him to you!'

(Gaston Leroux's_ The Phantom of the Opera_, p.66)

* * *

A young woman fastens a dark cloak over her shoulders. Her rose hair cascades down her back, loose and set free as it would be when one prepares for bed.

But she does not carry any notion of sleep in her mind—none at all.

Instead she unlocks her door in a most careful fashion, so as not to cause its hinges to creak.

Then she descends the staircase with the same caution, asks the landlady for the key, and exits the inn.

It is a clear night, and as she treads through the high snow Sakura's hair shines a silvery pink with moonlight's sheen. Her black cloak plays quite the contrast against the stark white landscape as it trails behind her. If there was anyone out at this late hour, and had they stopped to take a closer look, they would see that her cloak belonged to a man.

Though her skin glows white against the cold air, her cheeks are flushed a color even more rosy than her hair. Excitement taints her complexion and pulls at her figure, moving her quickly along the empty road. And then once the clock strikes a quarter to midnight, she takes off, almost running.

The gates are unlocked and so she opens them with ease in her haste. At once she is in the churchyard.

The tombstones lie low, buried by the snow, and for some it is only the crosses at their tops that touch the cold air.

Scattered about the yard, roses bloom, thriving within the deep winter. They are a deep red, and portray a false harshness within the scene's serenity.

At the church's sides, heaps of skeletons and skulls are stacked in rows, held together by metal wire. The walls of bone loom over the landscape with a hundred eternal smiles.

Sakura reaches her father's grave and kneels to pray. She barely manages to make the sign of a cross before it strikes midnight.

At the last stroke, Sakura lifts her gaze to the skies and stretches her hands out, her entire figure trembling with ecstasy.

And then a violin begins to play the most perfect music.

The young man who had followed Sakura and now watches from behind the gate's pillar immediately recognizes the piece. It is a tune that was often played to Sakura and he by the late M. Haruno, on childhood summer nights. But even then it had never been executed with the perfection with which it is played now.

The music he hears is a divine art, made real by only an Angel's mastery.

The Uchiha viscount immediately remembers the tale M. Haruno would recount, the tale Sakura had reminded him of so recently as she spoke, with all the fear a young woman could muster, of her absurd dressing room vocal lessons.

The tale of the _Angel of Music_.

'_If Sakura's angel exists_,' the viscount thought, '_he could not play better_, _this night, on the late musician's violin._'

The young woman looks entirely enraptured. Tears spring from her emerald eyes, and roll down her cheeks in glistening streaks. Her lips are pulled open joyously, and her brows crease in awed worship.

The music played by this haunting talent has her whole being captured in the angel's trance.

When the last note is played, and its string vibrates into silence, Sakura remains upheld in this magnificent pose.

Sasuke hears a deep noise from the skulls within the heaps of bone. It is as if they are chuckling, and he can't help but shudder.

But his attention has been drawn towards the source of the sound.

Sakura finally rises to a stand, and heads to the gate, but so absorbed is she that she fails to take notice of him. And so, just after she leaves, Sasuke walks to the wall of bone.

When he stands there, he has but a mere instant to contemplate before a skull rolls to his feet...and then another...and yet another.

He realizes that the mysterious musician was indeed hiding behind, and must have taken a wrong step, causing the structure to unravel.

His assumption is confirmed once he lifts his head and sees a shadow gliding atop the church wall.

Sasuke runs after the figure. It pushes through the doors and enters the church, but Sasuke is faster, and grabs ahold of its cloak.

They stand just before the high altar, and moonlight falls upon them through stained glass. As Sasuke doesn't let go of its cloak, the figure turns slowly towards him.

Horror strikes like lightning throughout his entire being.

A terrible death's-head stares at him from behind a sunken pair of mismatched eyes. Its left one is a scorching _red_, and the heat of its gaze melts down to his very soul.

Patches of skin cling desperately to bone, and yet flaps still jut out of raw flesh. A jagged scar rips through the mess of its left cheek, down to a mouth that while closed still bares its teeth through holes of skin.

Sasuke feels as if he is face-to-face with Satan, and once he gulps in the sight of this unearthly apparition, his heart weakens, his courage failing him, and he falls to the ground unconscious.

* * *

**I definitely want to write a whole Phantom of the Opera AU. Eventually.**


End file.
